Aumi’s young developer gave an interview to ASDtech about his motivation behind Aumi and what makes this app unique.

Vanessa Zervogianni (VZ): Hello Ethan! Thank you so much for connecting with ASDtech. It’s a pleasure to see new technology created by young, ambitious autistic people. First, tell us a little bit about yourself. Who are you, how do you spend your time and how did your interest in technology develop?

Ethan Shallcross (ES): I’m 18 years old, and when I’m not working, I like to walk and listen to podcasts. I started making websites and apps using online ‘drag and drop’ website builders. I then learnt basic HTML and CSS. I continued with web development, learning PHP and Javascript. When I was 14, I got my first Mac. Then, I started developing for iOS.

VZ: How did the idea for Aumi come about and how does it differ from similar apps?

ES: I first created the app as I wanted a way track my mood, in order to make it easier show people who supported me how I’d been. Aumi uses periodic notifications, which means that I actually end up tracking my mood, as I can make a recording by just selecting an emoji on my watch. It made support meetings more useful, as I could look at specific times in the week where I was, for example, anxious. Before, I had trouble remembering how I had been at any time, which meant that I was often just guessing.

As well as this, there is a simple graph showing the proportion of the time I felt each mood in the last week and month. This was added because I wanted a really quick overview of how the week had been. I struggle with seeing the ‘big picture’, and so I didn’t know the overview before. This meant that I could take into account my mood in the previous week when planning the next.

I then saw a video online about the concept of energy accounting. The video suggested having a chart, listing all of the things that you do in a day along with the score between -10 (completely exhausting) and 10 (something that gives you lots of energy). I had often been finding myself feeling burnt out, and so the concept of taking the time to keep track of my energy levels seemed like a good idea. However, I thought that I would forget to add things to the chart, so I added into the app. This meant that the process was quicker and I wouldn’t have to have access to a chart to record any activities.

This then gave me the idea to integrate a planner. Although there are lots of apps for planning days available, I couldn’t find one that took into account your energy levels. Therefore, I added a planner which totalled the energy impacts of the activities in the day. This, again, was designed to prevent burnout.

The last section that was added was the profile section. This was designed to be a digital alternative to the autism information cards that are available elsewhere. I often forgot to take any sort of information with me, so adding this section into the app meant that I would always have some sort of information with me.

As an autistic person, do you think that digital technology (any software or hardware) has enhanced your life quality? In what ways?

ES: I think that digital technology has enhanced my life quality. Being able to do interviews over email makes it much easier for me, as I have time to plan out my response. Also, I have found that there are lots of websites which offer really good advice and support that I have used for several years.

VZ: What are your plans for the near future? Will you continue working on Aumi, do you have other projects in mind perhaps?

ES: With iOS 13 coming in September, there will be an update to take advantage of its new features. I’m also working on Aumi for Android; the release date for this will be announced shortly. The plan is to try to tell as many people about Aumi as possible. These users will hopefully provide good feedback to influence the further development.

Read  our blog post about Aumi.